Clinical Utility of WAIS-IV Matrix Reasoning Among Adult Low Educated Recent Immigrants; A Note of Caution.

This article examines the clinical utility of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-IV (WAIS-IV) Matrix Reasoning (MR) subtest in limited educated, recently arrived immigrants in Denmark, primarily from Middle Eastern and Sub-Saharan African countries. The study found that 59% of participants scored more than two standard deviations below Scandinavian normative means, with MR performance significantly associated with years of education but not with occupational status, length of residence in Denmark, or Danish language skills. Common error types included repetition and incomplete correlate errors, particularly among those with fewer than five years of education. The findings suggest that WAIS-IV MR may underestimate cognitive functioning in this population, indicating that poor test results should be interpreted cautiously and contextualized with functional assessments to avoid misdiagnosis of cognitive impairment or intellectual disability.